"It's simple: Those who make more pay more. Those who make less pay less. All based on logic. No feeling. That's as simple as I can put it to you. If you don't get it from that, you simply don't understand logic at all."

I love the 'all based on logic' piece... and that logic is based on arbitrary #s as to who pays more and who pays less.... lol. certainly, logically speaking of course, a family that makes $250,000 is wealthy and should pay a higher tax than a family that makes $249,999. obviously somebody has on their 'feeling' cap and not their 'thinking' cap.

Do you realize that your ideas of "right" and "fair" are quite different than most everybody else's? That your way of thinking is the outlier here?

Do you realize that you are attempting to use a logical fallacy of argument?

Let me make a couple of points beyond that:

First, I'm not sure I am in the minority, except maybe on here, and that may depend entirely upon who decides to respond, so you can't even accurately assess that. There are plenty of people who believe the rich should be paying more. In fact, I would suggest those people may well outnumber those who think the wealthy are already paying enough.

Second, even if I am in the minority or an "outlier" as you seem to want to label me, that means nothing as far as any debate on the topic goes. As I said, it's a logical fallacy in argument. How many people agree with your position doesn't support the validity of the argument itself.

Ah Bis, so many holes in your theories, so little time.....

There are no holes, but I'm sure that won't stop you from doing everything you can in an attempt to manufacture one.

A bit of advice: Try to refrain from making assumptions when you do that, because it will lead you to incorrect conclusions you will mistake for "holes in your theories", and you will subsequently waste a lot of time attacking those "holes" which are just your own misconceptions only to have me tell you as much when I respond.

Posted by tecwrg on 11/15/2012 10:24:00 AM (view original):Do you realize that your ideas of "right" and "fair" are quite different than most everybody else's? That your way of thinking is the outlier here?

Outlier in a thread populated largely by righties licking their wounds after the election? Maybe. In America in general? Not so much.

Posted by moy23 on 11/15/2012 12:10:00 PM (view original):"It's simple: Those who make more pay more. Those who make less pay less. All based on logic. No feeling. That's as simple as I can put it to you. If you don't get it from that, you simply don't understand logic at all."

I love the 'all based on logic' piece... and that logic is based on arbitrary #s as to who pays more and who pays less.... lol. certainly, logically speaking of course, a family that makes $250,000 is wealthy and should pay a higher tax than a family that makes $249,999. obviously somebody has on their 'feeling' cap and not their 'thinking' cap.

You do realize how marginal tax rates work right? The family making one dollar more is only paying X percentage more on that one dollar. In this case I think the grand total would be something like 4 cents.

Posted by tecwrg on 11/15/2012 10:24:00 AM (view original):Do you realize that your ideas of "right" and "fair" are quite different than most everybody else's? That your way of thinking is the outlier here?

Outlier in a thread populated largely by righties licking their wounds after the election? Maybe. In America in general? Not so much.

I think most people want clearly defined rules for things such as taxes. Something beyond "you look like you can afford to pay more, so pay more. We'll tell you when we think it's enough". Which is roughly what bistiza seems to be advocating.

Honestly bistiza, when you said your position "has no holes," you pretty much invalidated everything you say. If you can't be honest enough about your position to admit that it might be at least marginally flawed in some way, there's really no point trying to have a discussion about it. Nobody's going to convince you that something you think is completely perfect is in any way wrong, so why bother. Everyone else should just let it go, you have stepped far too far away from the real world to be worth debating any political or economic topic with.

Posted by moy23 on 11/15/2012 12:10:00 PM (view original):"It's simple: Those who make more pay more. Those who make less pay less. All based on logic. No feeling. That's as simple as I can put it to you. If you don't get it from that, you simply don't understand logic at all."

I love the 'all based on logic' piece... and that logic is based on arbitrary #s as to who pays more and who pays less.... lol. certainly, logically speaking of course, a family that makes $250,000 is wealthy and should pay a higher tax than a family that makes $249,999. obviously somebody has on their 'feeling' cap and not their 'thinking' cap.

You do realize how marginal tax rates work right? The family making one dollar more is only paying X percentage more on that one dollar. In this case I think the grand total would be something like 4 cents.

who decides who is wealthy and who is not? why stop at income brackets.... how about we add in ethnicity brackets and tax whites more than Latinos and Latinos more than Asians? I mean if it's ok to discriminate wealth, right?

Posted by bad_luck on 11/15/2012 2:52:00 PM (view original):Tax brackets are not discrimination.

I think discriminating people based on wealth is just as bad as discriminating based on age, sex, or race. taxing people more based on their wealth is discrimination.... it's just legal discrimination.

Posted by bad_luck on 11/15/2012 2:52:00 PM (view original):Tax brackets are not discrimination.

I think discriminating people based on wealth is just as bad as discriminating based on age, sex, or race. taxing people more based on their wealth is discrimination.... it's just legal discrimination.

But it's not discrimination. Everyone is subject to the same laws. Assuming the same deductions, etc., me and Alex Rodriguez pay the same federal income tax on the first $100,000 that we make. I'm not wealthy. He is.

Something beyond "you look like you can afford to pay more, so pay more. We'll tell you when we think it's enough". Which is roughly what bistiza seems to be advocating.

These are the kinds of assumptions I keep telling people not to make. If you don't understand something I say, ask rather than assuming.

I've been very clear in what I advocate at several points in this thread, and it doesn't include a rough generalization of the situation like you suggest here.

What other conclusion would you expect someone to make based on your posts?

You again will not define a "fair share", won't tell us how much more you would have them pay, won't back up your assertions with facts, and make all sorts of assumptions about "rich people" without evidence.

How can you know how much people should pay if you have no idea to begin with? I'll grant that it's complex and there are many factors, but all you rely on is "the rich can afford more so they should pay more" and then call that "logic". More later....